As we come into a new presidency in the United States there are a few things we could offer as suggestions to help US Companies start exporting or increase their exports. Having talked with hundreds of US Companies over the years the key it seems is to decrease the restrictions, regulations, and “hoops” that they have to jump through to export. We can’t make companies export, but we can say “we tried to help.”
Skilled Workforce
We heard Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel talk about almost 6 Million jobs in the US are going unfilled. That is a shocking number that needs to be corrected. Obviously we cannot do this overnight it will take a few years but there are young people in this country we are debating whether or not to go to college and this might help them.
Credit for Workforce Training
Make every dollar that a company spends on apprenticeships, internships, job training, skills training tax deductible. Make every dollar spent by a family on their children’s skills training tax deductible. Make sure that every government; loan, grant, pre-paid, reimbursement for individuals available if they are learning a skill in the actual marketplace.
Diversified Markets (Exports)
Only 1% of US Companies export and of that number 60% only export to one market (most don’t even know that they do). We need to make sure companies know of the opportunities on the global marketplace by making them better aware of the services that are offered. Most companies don’t know that their state governments have lots of resources (Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas have great export programs).
Credit for Exporting
Make every dollar spent on exporting (non-employee salary, and reimbursement programs excluded) tax deductible or credit worthy. Companies that use government programs already get great discounts on the programs offered by the US Commercial Service compared to the private market. So increasing the credits, deductions and expenses could help greatly.
Export Restrictions
There are countries that obviously we don’t want certain exports going to for a number of reasons, but limiting the restrictions and laws associates with exports including the rules by the FDA, and other government entities. Also make the Export-Import Bank, SBA Finance Programs, and any way to make sure the government can guarantee an export loan available to a company. We talk about this in our Getting Paid blog post.
So we did our part to start the conversation on helping US Companies grow in the ways we know. Share with us your ideas related to US skills and Exporting and lets keep discussing as we go into a new presidential administration.
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